Ronnie O’Sullivan stands just three frames away from winning his 29th career ranking title following a fabulous and dominant display of snooker in the first session of the English Open final.

Ronnie O’Sullivan. Picture by Monique Limbos

The Rocket has a 6-2 lead against Kyren Wilson going into tonight’s final session with the latter facing a mountain to climb to upset the odds.

O’Sullivan has been in fabulous form all week and that has continued in the final with the five-times world champion at his majestic best producing big breaks and brilliant pots to punish the slightest of errors made by Wilson.

Wilson may feel unlucky to be so far behind after agonisingly missing the final black ball decider by a whisker in what could prove to be a telling third frame.

But O’Sullivan’s dominance stemmed from the very first frame when he compiled a break of 115 when Wilson missed a routine red while leading 19-0.

To his credit the 2015 Shanghai Masters winner responded brilliantly in frame two with a run of 74 and he will kick himself for not taking a 2-1 lead.

Wilson appeared to have the third frame at his mercy when a brilliant long final pink put him one pot away from winning the third frame. But a crucial long black was just over-cut and left over the pocket for O’Sullivan to easily pot and restore the lead.

O’Sullivan then made his tenth century break during the tournament and his 892nd in his career – as a run of 131 put him 3-1 up at the mid-session interval.

Wilson certainly lived up to his nickname of The Warrior after the restart as a break of 109 reduced his arrears to 3-2 but O’Sullivan appears to have taken the match by the scruff of the neck with breaks of 77, 87 and 96 to leave him on the verge of glory.

Today’s winner will receive a cheque for £70,000 and become the second player to lift the Steve Davis Trophy.

The final resumes at 7pm.